Wild Oats claims provisional line honours

Wild Oats XI has claimed provisional line honours in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race, but faces a protest which could see it stripped of the trophy.

Light winds off Tasmania's east coast made for slow racing earlier yesterday, but as the breeze picked up in the afternoon Wild Oats extended its lead.

It crossed the finishing line shortly after 8:30pm (AEDT), recording a race time of two days, seven hours and 37 minutes.

Investec LOYAL was the second yacht to cross the finish line shortly after midnight, about three and a half hours behind Wild Oats XI.

Lahana was third, arriving shortly after 3:00am, with Ichi Ban, Wild Thing and RAN all having crossed the line since. The current handicap leader is Victoire.

Race committee chairman Tim Cox says Wild Oats XI, as well as English yacht RAN, failed to have an operational HF radio as they passed Green Cape on Monday - a compulsory reporting stage at the entrance to Bass Strait.

He says a five-man jury will decide the fate of both yachts in Hobart this afternoon.

Wild Oats XI owner Bob Oately says he is confident his crew did not breach the race protocol.

He says the call was recorded, so there is evidence the crew followed protocol.

"No problem with the protest, we did everything correctly," he said.

LOYAL skipper Sean Langman said he was not preparing to claim the trophy from under the noses of Wild Oats.

"Our position is that we congratulate Wild Oats. They sailed a fine race," he said.

"The rest of it is really up to the committee."

LOYAL featured a host of sporting celebrities, including former Test cricketer Matthew Hayden and surfing world champion Layne Beachley.

Cruising Yacht Club of Australia Commodore Garry Linacre said Wild Oats, which has claimed four line-honours victories in the past, would in the meantime be named provisional line honours winner.

He said sanctions ranged from minor time penalties to disqualification without any avenue of appeal.

Cox said the rule was brought in after the disastrous 1998 race, in which six sailors died and just 44 yachts finished the race.

In 2001, Bermudan yacht Tyco was disqualified from the race for a similar breach - it lodged its crew and condition report seven minutes late.

Sixteen yachts have dropped out of the perilous dash down Australia's south-east coast, including Bacardi, which lost its mast in six-metre (20-foot) waves and gales of some 35 knots late Monday.

"There was an explosion when the deck disintegrated," skipper Martin Power said of the noise which ripped through the boat as it was battered by the waves.

"I saw the mast go. That was quiet, but when the chainplates peeled the deck away, there was a tremendous noise."

Power, who has crossed the Bass Strait some 95 times, said he had never encountered such conditions as those which hit on Sunday, forcing a string of vessels to quit the race to the Tasmanian capital Hobart.